ppi butspends the summer in Maycomb with his aunt at a house near theFinches.The children are curious to know more about Boo, and create amini-drama to enact which tells the events of his life as they know them.They Slowly begin moving closer to the house itself, which is said to behaunted. They try leaving notes for Boo on his windowsill, but they arecaught by Atticus. Atticus reprimands them firmly. Then they trysneaking to the house at night and looking through its windows.However, Boo’s brother, Nathan Radley, who lives with him, thinks hehears a prowler and begins firing his gun. The children get away, andJem loses his pants in the fence. When he returns to the house thatnight, his ripped pants have been folded and roughly sewn up.Other strange things happen to the Finch kids. A certain tree nearthe Radley house has a hole in which little presents are often left forthem, such as pennies and gum. When they leave a note for the giver ofthese gifts, Nathan plugs it up with cement the next day. The nextwinter brings unexpected cold and snow, and Miss Maudie’s housecatches. While Jem and Scout, shivering, watch the blaze from near theRadley house, someone puts a blanket around Scout. She doesn’t realizeuntil afterwards that Boo must have been this one to do this. Atticus decides to accept a case involving a black man named Tom Robinsonwho has been accused of raping a very poor white girl named Mayella Ewell,a member of the notorious Ewell family, who belong to the layer a Maycombsociety that people refer to as “trash.” The Finches all face harsh criticism in racist Maycomb because of Atticus’sdecision to defend Tom, but he insists upon going through with the casebecause his conscience could not let him do otherwise. Atticus knowsthat Tom has almost no chance because the white jury will never believehis story. He doesn’t care though because he wants to reveal the truthabout what happened to his...
